WW2 100 – 1 November 1943 – Another Dalditch Camp Tragedy: Marine Arthur John Wilson (1925-43), Royal Marines
Continued from 6 September 1943
'At the going down of the sun and
in the morning we will remember him':
MARINE JOHN
PHILIP RICHARDS (1924-43)
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/11/at-going-down-of-sun-and-in-morning-we.html
The grave of Arthur John Wilson in St Peter’s
Burial Ground, Moor Lane, Budleigh Salterton
Strangely, only three wartime deaths of servicemen associated
with Budleigh Salterton, have been recorded for the year 1943. Only one name appears on the War Memorial for
that year. The two other deaths occurred at Dalditch Camp, and were reported as
suicide. Click on the above link, and you can read about the first, that of
John Philip Richards.
Tragically, the second Dalditch Camp death
would take place two months later. The Western Morning News of 4 November
1943 reported that Arthur John Wilson, a Marine aged 18 from Bromley, Kent, had
taken his life three days earlier, on 1 November, ‘while the balance of his
mind was disturbed.’
Map of Dalditch Camp 1941-46 as re-drawn by Simon Fogg
Woodbury Common, only a few miles from where John and
Arthur lie buried in Budleigh Salterton’s St Peter’s Burial Ground, with its wild
landscape of undulating gorse and heather covered heathland has been used by the
military for centuries. In Autumn 1941, tents and marquees began to be replaced
by Nissen huts. By 1943, when John and Arthur died, Dalditch Camp had come into
being as a large training centre for Royal Marine recruits. At its zenith there
were over 6,000 inhabitants in what became virtually a small town until it
closed in November 1946.
The
item in the Western Morning News stated that Arthur ‘had been involved
in an accusation of putting ammunition in another man’s rifle’. Such an accusation, implying gross misconduct,
would have weighed heavily on his mind. High spirits would have been much too
feeble an excuse to offer for such a breach of regulations. The possibility of
being discharged from the Royal Marines and the prospect of dishonour for him
and his family would have been too much to bear.
What other factors could have driven John and Arthur to take their own lives?
How stressful was the wartime training for Royal Marines? They had, and have, to be tough in a way that I could never be! Many of them would be used in Special Operations behind enemy lines, and by 1943, Dalditch recruits would know that capture on such missions would usually mean death.
On 18 October 1942, Hitler had issued a Commando Order, which called for the execution of all captured commandos. A member of Facebook’s Budleigh – Past and Present group told me how, 30 years ago, she had taken her father – a former Royal Marine who had fought with the Chindits in Burma – to the remains of Dalditch Camp on Woodbury Common. He had mentioned the suicides of recruits such as John and Arthur.
The grave of Richard Michael Griffiths in All Saints' churchyard, East Budleigh
Had John and Arthur heard of the equally tragic case which had occurred the previous year at Dalditch Camp, when a young Lieutenant Richard Michael Griffiths had died? Were the circumstances similar? A school record from Dulwich College, London, where Richard had been a pupil, tells us that he had enlisted in the Royal Marines shortly after his seventeenth birthday, that he had been promoted to lieutenant in 1942, that he was in charge of the battalion of motor-cyclists and had died on 26 May that year, ‘of wounds accidentally received on service not far from their battle-posts at Dalditch’.
But a report in the Western Morning News of 30 May 1942 tells a different story, under the headline ‘TRICK’ ENDS IN DEATH. Richard, described as ‘of a high spirited nature’, had apparently asked a friend ‘How would you like to take a 6 to 1 chance?’ and had shot himself with the revolver that he was holding to his head. His grave is in All Saints Churchyard in East Budleigh.
'Lack of moral fibre' was the semi-official description of those servicemen who found the stress of wartime too much to bear. It was applied, for example, by senior officers to novices in Bomber Command who simply 'could not cope' with those terrifying missions. Perhaps actions like those of young Lieutenant Griffiths stemmed from bravado, from a desperate and deep-seated determination to show that no one could accuse them of cowardice. They may simply have resulted from a moment of stupid banter.
Or his action may have stemmed
from an earlier traumatic incident. He had enlisted in the Royal Marines shortly after his seventeenth
birthday and had his early training at Plymouth, where he’d received special
commendation on two occasions for his initiative and devotion to duty during
air raids. During one of these raids he was blown up by a high explosive bomb, was
severely injured, and spent several weeks in hospital suffering from the effects
of burns and deafness.
While researching
the life of Chelmsford-born Pilot Officer John Alastair Seabrook, who died on
10 July 1942, I came across the tragic record of William Henry Morris’
death. He was a Territorial soldier with a four-year-old daughter who was based
at the Drill Hall in Chelmsford. In March 1940 he was found there with sixteen
stab wounds in his chest from which he died in hospital afterwards.
‘He was smothered
with blood,’ said a witness. ‘I asked him what had happened, and he mumbled and
said, “They called me a coward, and to prove that I am not I have done
this.” An inquest later concluded he had committed suicide, but dismissed
the remark about cowardice as ‘a pure delusion’. The record is published online
as a tribute to all Chelmsford people who died in WW2. The website, which I
found impressive and thought-provoking is here
Image credit: https://nff.org.uk
‘Royal
Marines have one of the most physically and psychologically demanding jobs on
the planet, and findings show lack of knowledge about mental health issues
makes it more difficult to recognise a problem developing,’ reads a Ministry of
Defence press release of 3 April 2019. Project Regain is an initiative launched
by a serving commando with the aim of promoting early detection and help for
Royal Marines who could suffer from mental health issues. The Minister for
Defence People and Veterans Tobias Elwood applauded the Royal Marines for
leading the way in this matter, ‘ensuring no one suffers in silence.’
But in the
turmoil that was WW2 I can’t think it likely that resources would have been
devoted to such important issues. Now
that we are more aware of them, perhaps you could spare a thought or two for
John and Arthur when you see their two graves side by side in St Peter’s Burial
Ground.
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/01/ww2-75-9-january-1944-in-proud-and.html
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